Radio Show #6: Let’s Go to the Library.

Big ups to Casanova Superfly for covering the show this week. The theme for this weeks show was hip-hop that sampled or was thematically similar to Library, a.k.a. Production, music. For those who are unfamiliar with what production music is:

“Production music is the name given to the music owned by production music libraries and licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media.

Unlike popular and classical music publishers, who typically own less than 50 percent of the copyright in a composition, music production libraries own all of the copyrights of their music, meaning that it can be licensed without seeking the composer’s permission, as is necessary in licensing music from normal publishers. This is because virtually all music created for music libraries is done on a work for hire basis. Production music is therefore a convenient medium for media producers—they can be assured that they will be able to license any piece of music in the library at a reasonable rate[1].”

Essentially you can think of production music as the audio equivalent of stock footage. While production music has become a very diverse genre in and of itself (just as film and tv have become thematically varied requiring very different types of scores), it can also refer to a very specific sound that came out of the genre in the mid to late 60s and early 70s. During this time period classically trained composers were finding that with the flood of exploitation films that were being produced, in addition to the growing length and complexity of television programming, that scoring film and television could be a profitable outlet for their talents. While exploitation movies, movies of lurid subject matter (sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudity, freaks, gore, the bizarre, destruction, rebellion, mayhem, etc.) had been around since the early days of cinema they were becoming popular with the general relaxing of censorship and cinematic taboos in the USA and Europe. Capturing the audience with their intense themes and graphic imagery, grindhouses (burlesque theaters that had been converted to movie theaters to boost revenue) and drive-ins created a market for these low budget pulse-pounding flicks. Similarly the less graphic, though similarly action packed and dramatic, genre of Spaghetti Western rose to popularity, also calling to composers to reach out and explore new ideas with their scores.

Machete Trailer from Grindhouse (NSFW)

Anyways, onwards to the music:Bust A Move, Young M.C.
What can I say, I like to start things off with a bit of flair.

Isaac Hayes, Tuck Turner

King Tee, At Your Own Risk

Dangerdoom ft. Talib Kweli, Old School Rules

LoopTroop, Four Elements

Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, All You MC’s

Jay Z, Sweet

Py Infamous, Work & Play

Jurassic 5, Remember His Name

Gnarls Barkley, Run

Main Source, Large Professor

Clipse Kinda, Like A Big Deal

Gnarls Barkley, The Last Time

Gil Scott Heron, The Revolution Will not Be televised
While not Library music, Gil has released a remix of NY Is Killing Me off his new album with Nas, so I thought I’d play this in honor of such (you can download it by right-clicking and selecting save as here)